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This open-country bird is declining over most of its range. Males impales prey – large insects and small reptiles, amphibians, rodents, and passerines – on barbed wire and thorns to cache food and mark territories (indicating their fitness to potential mates).

With their sharp vision, Loggerheads can spot prey 70 yards away and can carry, using their bills, more than their own weight in flight.

Found in open country, lowland plains, grassy pastures, or hillsides with short grass and low shrubs and trees. Builds cup-like nest in thick shrubs or low trees.

VOICE Song a series of harsh paired phrases repeated at precise intervals. Calls include harsh fusses.

These birds are rarely seen here anymore, at least I haven’t seen one in quite a while. I remember the first time I saw one – was just a kid back in the ‘50s, & a shrike had impaled a mouse on a barberry thorn right outside my parents’ bedroom window – sounds grisly, but my father, a great birdwatcher, told me the whole natural history of the shrike & its habits before showing it to me. What a guy – & my mother was similarly gifted in these matters!! This is a marvelous shot of this fellow – lucky you to have caught him so well. We also have the Northern Shrike in these parts – a slightly larger bird, also rarely seen.